Return of the Nightmares
by WhatsInAName99
Summary: Strange anomalies are happening with the lights across the globe, and Jack Frost is missing. Is Pitch Black responsible, or is he in just as much danger as the Guardians? Can Pitch be trusted when the Guardians and the Boogieman join forces to rescue Jack and defeat a mutual threat? I have to up the rating to T now because Pitch said a semi-naughty word.
1. Chapter 1

How long had it been since it snowed in Cape Town?

Jack Frost could not remember exactly, only that it had been far to long.

The wind and the icy clouds swirled around the Guardian of Fun as he twirled, twisted, and looped around in the sky on his wooden staff creating a small flurry that would soon coat the Cape of Good Hope in a layer of white. Unfortunately the temperate climate of the region allowed for only a light snowfall, but the smiles on the children's faces at the sight of such a rare treat made it worth it to Jack to extend the immense energy it took to make it snow in South Africa.

He swooped down into the neighborhoods, where children were rushing out of their homes, eyes like pie plates and mouths agape with wonder at the beautiful wintry surprise. They laughed and danced and stuck out their tongues to catch the tiny snowflakes as they fell. The joy in these children gave Jack a strong feeling of accomplishment and pride.

Feeling that his Guardianly duties were done for the day, Jack jumped back aboard the wind and began a southbound flight to Antarctica, one of his favorite places to sleep. Ever since he had discovered his true purpose in that dark chasm there, the continent always induced pleasant dreams of his human childhood.

Before he made it there, however, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He only saw the whatever-it-was for a millisecond, but it gave him an off feeling. He followed in the general direction he thought the thing had gone. Again, he saw a flash of the same unidentifiable something. This time, though, he knew it was something unnatural; not a bird or anything that belonged in the sky.

Then he heard something…

_Swish._

…that was most defiantly not the wind. Something twisted in his gut that told him that something was defiantly very wrong.

"A feeling in my belly," Jack muttered, "I've been hanging out with North way too much."

_Swish._

There was the sound again, and with it came a slightly better view of the "UFO" that Jack had been chasing. It was defiantly black with a glistening and wispy look about it.

Jack gritted his teeth (something Toothy often scolded him for doing) "That better not be what I think it is," he grumbled and continued his pursuit of what was quite possibly a…

Then the thing that the young guardian had been chasing finally shot straight up and reared its head in front of Jack. It's sickly translucent yellow eyes stared straight thru Jacks own crystal blue ones, its black snout only inches from Jacks face. Its main flickered like black fire in the wind.

A Nightmare.

"How are you following me?" Jack shouted angrily at the dark conjuring of fear in front of him. "I'm not afraid!"

The Nightmare snorted smoke in Jacks face. Before the Guardian could ready his staff to strike at it, the Nightmare let out a whine so loud and so shrill that Jack had to cover his ears. Suddenly the sky around and above him went dark and at least four or five more of the terrible horses surrounded him.

In one swift motion Jack grabbed the staff from under his feet and took aim, firing a blast of ice straight into one of the nightmares, disintegrating the creature into shards of blue-tinted sandy black ice. But Jack's back was turned just long enough for two more Nightmares to form a cloud around him, closing, smothering and blinding him. He could not help the panic that swept over him when he began to feel the sand constrict around him, making it harder and harder to move. One band of nightmare sand twisted around his wrist and snapped it back painfully, making Jack cry out from the pain.

"AH! Wait…Wait, No! NOO!"

The wrist that was now broken was to weak to allow his fingers a tight enough grip on the staff, and it slipped from his hand and fell thru the sky toward the ocean beneath.

"NOOOO!"

He was still in the air, though, now completely incased and immobilized by nightmare sand.

Then he felt like he was falling, plummeting, freefalling, though inside his sandy prison he could see nothing but total darkness. He could hear, though. He could hear the rush of air past him. He was falling.

Falling without his only means of transportation.

Falling trapped inside an encasement of Nightmares.

Trapped with no means of escape.

Trapped by the creation of an enemy he thought had been defeated.

"Do you hear me, Pitch?!" Jack tried to shout, but he could not hear his own voice in the suffocation of his bondage. Still he shouted, "You won't get away with this! I'll-"

Jack could not finish his last sentence before the Nightmares surrounding him crashed into the ground


	2. Chapter 2

I apologize that my chapters are short. My goal is short but frequent updates.

* * *

Jack awoke with a headache that seemed as if it could split his skull in half. Cold, sharp wind howled around him, whipping up snow and ice in every direction, forming almost a cyclone around the barely conscious boy. Jack looked up at the night sky and, if not for his desperate situation, would have been stunned by the beautiful sight. All assortments of shades of red, orange, pink and purple painted the sky like a cascading rainbow against a sheet of black. He had seen _Aurora Australis_ many times before, but a predominantly red Southern Lights show was extremely rare. At this sight Jack guessed that he really had reached Antarctica after all, and during a beautiful time. The nights were long and bitter this time of year for, although mid-summer in his Pennsylvania home, it was the dead of winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

Slowly and painfully, Jack tried to stand up. He was crouched down like an injured cat when his beaten body, especially his broken wrist, protested angrily and he collapsed with a grunt of pain. Again and again he tried to raise himself up, and again and again he fell. Eventually Jack gave up and resolved to lay and rest on the icy ground and allow the blowing snow to cover him up. Ice was the element of his power, so he knew no degree of cold would harm him. In fact in theory it should be beneficial; at least Jack hoped so.

Jack was thoroughly exhausted and he closed his heavy eyes, hoping to fall asleep. Just as he was about to drift away, however, his eyes snapped open. Panic immediately set in when he heard the telltale whinny of a Nightmare. He opened his eyes again and, sure enough, the dreadful offspring of fear was no more than ten feet in front of him, stomping and scraping its hooves on the ground, its head bent low and its ears pinned against the back of its head. Jack had seen enough horses in his life (had been thrown from one as a nine year old human child) and he knew that this meant it was angry and about to charge.

The injured Guardian could not help but admit to himself that he was afraid. This really was his Nightmare now. He flinched when is snorted smoke and shook its wild mane, and he screamed when he watched it charge toward him.


	3. Chapter 3

I love writing Bunny! Feel free to ask if you get confused by any of his Auzie.

* * *

The Guardian of Wonder had not slept for days.

North's attention was constantly one the globe, watching for when, not if, it would happen again.

Every day for two weeks now, strange things had been happening on the globe. The lights would flicker randomly, and then go back to normal. It did not happen on the entire globe at once as it had over a year ago when Pitch Black had returned. It would just happen in a single city, state, or region for a minute or so and then stop. There was no pattern that he could recognize in this phenomenon and no way to predict when or where it would happen next or for how long.

The "ripples" as he had come to call them were, however, becoming progressively longer. The first time had been in St. Petersburg, and the ripple had been so fast that North could have blinked at the wrong moment and not seen it. But the previous morning a ripple in Cape Town, South Africa had lasted almost ten minutes, the longest yet.

"Awful clucky over that globe there, North."

North spun around to see Bunny standing in the doorway, arms crossed and looking concerned. Bunny was the only other Guardian that North had told about the ripples. He knew Sandy, Tooth, and Jack were constantly on the move and did not want to take them away from their duties as Guardians unless it was an absolute emergency.

"Do not sneak up on me that way! You almost gave me heart attack."

"Sorry mate. But ya look flat stonkered. When's the last time ya had a lie-down?"

The Guardian of Wonder sighed heavily and rubbed his thickly bearded chin. "Not for days. Something is terribly wrong, Bunny."

"Let me guess. Ya feel it in your belly?"

North nodded. "Soon ripples will get worse. If this is Pitch again, we will have battle on our hands like never before. We will not-"

"Strewth," Bunny interrupted, "Pennsylvania, mate!"

North turned his attention back to the map. Lights were flashing sporadically and rapidly all across the American state of Pennsylvania like North had never seen before. Neither Guardian could speak while they watched the terrible spectacle that lasted a total of…

"Twelve bloody minutes," Bunny said once it was over, shaking his head. "That's gotta be record."

"Ripples are getting longer and getting worse," North agreed. "I do not like to call meeting unless things are serious."

"After the blue we got into with Pitch a year ago I'd say this is serious."

North hummed thoughtfully. "You are right, Bunny. It is time to summon gathering of Guardians!"


	4. Chapter 4

"St Louis, Quadrant Four, central incisor, Quadrant One, second premolar…" Tooth flitted about the Globe room giving orders to her fairies.

North tried to wake up Sandy and Bunny alternated watching the globe and watching the window. North had activated the Aurora to summon the Guardians immediately after the Pennsylvania incident, and Tooth and Sandy had both arrived quickly. That was over an hour ago, and Jack Frost was still not there.

"Where could he be?" Tooth wondered, drawing her attention away from directing teeth for the first time sense arriving at the Pole. "I'm starting to worry."

"About Snowflake? Neh," Bunny waved his hand dismissively. "That Jack Frost's a larrikin. He's probably causing bingles and starting snowball fights." Bunny wanted to believe his own excuses for why Jack Frost had yet to arrive, but he had to admit to himself that it was at least a slight bit bothersome. He could never show that to Tooth, though.

"In the summer time? It's not the proper climate in any populated region for snow and ice. Something's wrong." Four Baby Teeth chirped and cooed in agreement, especially one in particular. She was smaller than the rest with a pinker complexion and a feather noticeably missing from her left wing. This was Jack's Baby Tooth; the one he had saved from the Nightmares at the Tooth Palace.

"Besides," Tooth continued, "Jack wouldn't just ignore a call like this. Something has to be holding him up."

"We start meeting without Jack," North announced now that Sandy was awake. "When he arrives we fill him in. If he does not come by end of meeting, we go and look for him."

Tooth and Bunny nodded. It was all they could do.

Above the Sandman's head, a wisp of gold formed a silhouette of Pitch followed by a question mark. He looked up at North.

"I do not know, Sandman," North replied. "Only that something bad is happening to lights on globe."

Bunny nodded. "This is bad oil, blokes." Feeling a glare from Tooth, he amended, "And sheilas."

As if on cue, another ripple began.

"Is happening now!" North exclaimed and pointed to Canada. Eastern Manitoba and part of western Ontario were practically pulsating.

They all watched in stunned silence as the ripple that affected two Canadian provinces raged on for a staggering fifteen minutes.

"How long has this been going on?" Tooth asked frantically.

"Couple weeks now," answered Bunny.

"I told only Bunny because I did not wish to summon all Guardians unless absolute emergency. But ripples are getting worse. Happening more often, lasting longer, and covering larger territory."

Sandy shook his fists in the air, a figure of Pitch once again forming above his head.

"I think it's time we lob in on Mr. Black," suggested Bunny.

"But how do we find him?" asked Tooth. "The only Guardian who's ever been to his hideout is…"

No one liked to think back to that incident, but they all knew Jack was the first legendary, let alone Guardian, to set foot in the lair of the Boogieman. Not counting the Baby Teeth, or cores, but they could not possibly be asked to return to the place where they had once been help prisoner.

"We must find Jack," North said. "He will track down Pitch and help put end to ripples before they become worse."


	5. Chapter 5

Pitch Black had felt North's little light show. The Guardians must be having some sort of meeting. Surely at least North had noticed the anomalies across the globe as Pitch had and thought it was important enough to call the Big Four, correction, Big Five now, all together.

Good.

Perhaps they could solve his little predicament for him.

But those meddling, do-gooder spirits would not even know where to start in reigning in the rebellious Nightmares, now would they? They probably already blamed him for this disaster. Soon they would be beating down his door demanding that he stop terrorizing the poor little children.

But it wasn't his fault! Really this was the byproduct of what the Guardians, specifically Jack Frost, had done to him. They stripped him of his power and banished him underground to be tortured by his own creations. Now those very creations were out of even his control. Just thinking about it enraged the Boogieman, and he shouted angrily and threw a blast of shadow at the nearest wall. He immediately regretted this. His defeat and subsequent imprisonment had made him so weak that any expenditure of energy left him exhausted.

"Soon you will seek me out," he spoke aloud, imagining the Guardians. "Soon you will see what you have done to me. More to the point, you will see what you have done to yourselves. At last, you will realize that the world needs me, that fear is necessary and that I alone must control the darkness."

Then a thought occurred to him. Would the Guardians even know where or how to find him? The only way Jack made it to the lair was because Pitch had lured him. Perhaps if he lured Jack again...? But what for the bait? Jack had everything he had ever wanted now: friends, family, a small but steadily growing pool of believers.

Believers…

There was nothing on this earth that Jack Frost cared for more than that little boy, his first believer, the child who had been the last one with enough hope and wonder left inside of him that he could turn Nightmares back into Dreams.

Jamie Bennett would make excellent Jack bait.

Pitch smiled and chuckled darkly. "Yes. Excellent bait indeed."


	6. Chapter 6

"Eighteen, Nineteen, TWENTY! Ready or not, here I come!"

Jamie Bennett crouched between two a large rocks just inside the tree line in the woods near the pond. Cupcake was finished counting and he smiled because he knew he had the best hiding spot ever. In fact, even though Cupcake was the best hide-and-seek seeker in all of Burgess, not even she had ever found Jamie when he hid here.

He suppressed a laugh when he heard his sister squeal.

"Found you, Sophie!"

One by one Jamie heard all of his friends emitting groans of disappointment when Cupcake effortlessly located them. Jamie, as always, was the last one left hidden.

"You have to stay within sight of the pond or it's cheating, Bennett!"

Cupcake went on shouting, promising to find him. He considered giving himself up. He was holding up the game for everyone else and his legs were beginning to cramp.

Suddenly he heard something rush past him. It startled him, but the feeling left almost immediately. These woods were full of rabbits, squires, and even field mice. Then he heard footsteps, human footsteps, and he was sure he had finally been found.

"Congratulations, Cupcake, you finally found…" He looked in the direction of the steps, which was actually deeper into the forest. The shadows were much, much darker than they should have been during midday, and this immediately frightened him. He did not even notice that one of the shadows was strangely human…

Until that shadow began to move toward him.

Jamie gasped. "Pitch," he said under his breath. He shot up from his hiding place and took off in a dead run.

"Everyone get in the sunlight! Out of the shadows NOW!" he shouted, hoping the others could hear him. "Pitch is here! Get out of the shadows!"

"Jamie!?" Cupcake called back

"Cupcake, get everyone ho-" Jamie was cut off mid sentence when a semi-solid shadow wrapped around his mouth, silencing his screams into muffled grunts. Another rope of shadows constricted around his chest, pinning his arms to his sides and yanking him backwards. When he fell, he landed flat on his back and found himself face to face with the Boogieman.

"Why hello, Jamie. It's been a while."

Jamie struggled and kicked in defiance.

"In all my centuries of ruling the darkness, I can't say I've ever kidnapped a child. You make an excellent first, Jamie Bennett."

"Jamie?" he heard his friends calling. "What's going on? Are you okay?"

"Oh, no. You're certainly not okay. You see, I have a problem, Jamie, and you're going to help me solve it."

Jamie wanted to shout something along the lines of "What makes you think I would ever help you," but with his mouth covered in the shadow gag, it came out more like "hmm muu huum mh!"

"Your fear is already empowering me. I'll explain it all to you when we get home."

Jamie's eyes widened and he tried to scream again when a cyclone of shadow enveloped them. He could not see the woods. He could not hear his friends. All he saw was darkness.

* * *

I ship JaCake in case anyone was wondering! Speaking of shipping, there will be no blatant shipping in this story. Maybe a little implied FrostBite, blink and you'll miss it one sided affection for Jack on Pitch's part... But I'm not going to make relationships get in the way of the story. So this fic is ship neutral for the most part.


	7. Chapter 7

As soon as Jamie became aware of things again, he found himself on a cold metal floor surrounded by a dome of wrought-iron bars. He didn't know if it was just the dizziness, but he felt like the ground was somehow unstable. Slowly he crept toward the bars and made the mistake of looking up…

…And then looking down.

He was inside some sort of giant birdcage hanging over the ground below at a height taller than his house. He screamed and quickly crawled backward, causing the suspended cage to swing.

"P-Pitch?" he called out, not quite as bravely as he had hoped to sound. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Pitch Black! I know you're here somewhere. You let me go right now! When Jack Frost finds out about this, he'll freeze you in a giant block of ice, you…you creep!"

"Jack Frost," a voice echoed across the layer, seeming to come from all directions at once like theater surround sound, "is exactly who I want."

Jamie thought for a moment. His mouth opened in a silent gasp when he realized why he was there. "Y-you mean you using me as b-bait to capture Jack!?"

"Not so much to capture," came Pitch's voice again, this time it sounded like it was coming from inside the cage…behind Jamie.

Jamie turned around to see Pitch himself standing not six feet in front of him. "How are you doing that?" the boy asked, his voice coming across more curious than frightened.

Pitch smiled to revile two perfect rows of pointed teeth. Jamie cringed. "Little children. Always so curious, aren't you? But that's far beside the point. You see, I want Jack to come here and find you. And when he does, you will be released unharmed, I promise you that. I have nothing to gain from hurting you." Pitch began to stroll in a circle around Jamie, who followed Pitch with his eyes.

"When you and the Guardians defeated me, I lost control of my Nightmares; those black horses that you so cleverly turned into dolphins and butterflies with your childlike hope and wonder. The ones that survived the battle turned to feed off of the only fear left." Pitch leaned in just inches away from Jamie's face. "My fear." He straightened and began to pace again. "They pulled me down into the ground, and for over a year now I have been a prisoner in my own home held captive by my own creations."

"Serves you right for what you did!" Jamie scolded.

"What I did is nothing compared to what you and your Guardians inadvertently caused. You see, when I lost control of my Nightmares, they used my fear to become stronger. When they lost interest in torturing me, they ran rampant, spreading throughout the world, reproducing, and causing mayhem of every fearful sort. If left to their own devices, they will do more damage that I have ever dreamed of doing."

Pitch surprised Jamie then. The Boogieman sat down next to the boy and crossed his legs casually. His eyes seemed almost…no, not almost, completely genuine.

"You see, Jamie, I have a motive, one far deeper than what the narrow minded Guardians see. But these creatures I have created are mindless agents of terror. I created them that way so that I could control them in masses. But then…" Pitch cast his eyes down looking quite shameful. "Then they mutinied upon me; escaped my control. I am loath to admit that I cannot regain control of them on my own. I haven't the strength thanks to you." Pitch's lips twisted in malice at the last sentence.

"So," Jamie spoke slowly, "You need the Guardians to help you? Why would they help you?"

"Because I will prove a point to them!" Pitch looked back at Jamie, his eyes yellowing with contempt. He rose to his feet fluidly. "The chaos caused by a battalion of leaderless Nightmares will prove to them that, without someone to control the darkness, the darkness will control everything. Contrary to popular belief that is NOT what I want. "

"No, YOU want to be the one to control everything."

"I HAVE to be in control of the darkness! Have you heard nothing I've just said?"

"And you think the Guardians are going to believe that?"

"Don't you?"

That made Jamie pause to think. Did he truly believe Pitch? Did he believe that the darkness required a master in order to stop it from destroying everything? If Pitch was telling the truth about the Nightmares, which Jamie believed Pitch was, then someone had to control them, didn't they? It sounded like there were far to many for the Guardians to simple destroy and defeat.

"To a point…" Jamie finally answered, "Yes."

"Then you are going to tell that to Jack Frost for me when he comes for you. In exchange, you go free and I harm no one, not even the Guardians. Deal?"

Jamie nodded wordlessly.

"I have left a door open for him. All that's left to do now is wait."


	8. Chapter 8

I originally wasn't going to add this as a chapter because I felt like it broke the flow, but I think everyone's curious about what's happening to Jack right now. So here you go.

* * *

_Darkness._

_ It is cold. It is dark._

And Jack Frost is terrified.

For the first time in centuries the cold is piercing and painful. He cannot breath. His eyes open in the frigid depths of the water, and he fights his way to the surface. He gasps for air to fill his burning lungs when he reaches the top.

"Jack!" a small frail voice calls out, "Jack, help me, I'm scared!"

Jack looks around frantically and finally, over the choppy waves of the sea that seems to go on and on forever in every direction (including down) Jack sees a little girl with chestnut hair and enormous terrified eyes struggling to keep her head above the violent swell.

"Emma!" he cries out. He paddles and paddles towards her, desperate to reach her before she is pulled down to her death. He swims as hard as he can but no matter how hard he swims, the girl seems to drift farther and farther away from him.

"Jack!" the girl cries again, her voice choked and muffled by the water pouring into her open mouth.

"Don't worry Emma! I'll save you. Hang on!"

One final terrible gasp before the girl sinks like a stone.

"EMMA!"

Jack takes a deep breath and dives down into the cold dark depths of the never-ending sea, the water stinging his eyes as he searches for Emma. She is nowhere to be found.

Jack's chest feels like it could burst at any moment and he tries to fight his way back to the water's surface. His head is light and just when he thinks he will lose consciousness, he bursts free and gasps in life.

"Jack!" comes the voice again. Again Jack searches for the voice and finds Emma again.

"Jack, help me, I'm scared!"

"Hold on Emma! I'm coming!"

He swims and swims…

...and swims…

...and...

And this was the nightmare that repeated itself, cycling over and over again in Jacks torturous sleep. In his unconsciousness, he never felt the heavy hooves of the Nightmares that guarded him trampling down on his limp form, keeping his body week and his nightmare playing endlessly. In the perpetual darkness of the Antarctic winter, time could not be measured. The torturous process was fully capable of continuing indefinitely.

The Nightmares hoped it did just this.

* * *

Apparently the fandom has named Jack's sister Emma. I couldn't think of a better name for her so I went with it.


	9. Chapter 9

The Guardians left in search of Jack as soon as the meeting was over and North had organized the Yetis into shifts to keep a watchful eye on the globe. They decided that the first place to look for the missing Guardian was at his home by the pond in Burgess. It was unlikely that he would be someplace with such hot weather, but for Jack Frost to be somewhere unlikely was, well, quite likely. Three out of four outvoted North and opted to travel via Bunny's tunnels, as it was faster and less conspicuous than a big red sleigh.

They popped up right on the tree line with North still grumbling what the others assumed to be profanities in Russian. They had all expected to find the pond surrounded by laughing, playing children as it usually was.

They could never have expected to find this.

A segment of the forest was blocked off with yellow ribbon and teams of uniformed people combed the woods.

"Jamie!" they called. "Jamie Bennett!"

A group of Jamie's friends were all huddled together, all crying, under the watchful eye of a police officer.

"I heard him screaming something." One girl sobbed to the officer. "We called him and waited but he didn't answer. We went to look for him and he was just…just…"

"Gone," another boy finished.

"Looks like two missing boys now," said North, watching the spectacle.

A series of symbols including stars and a bust of Pitch flashed across Sandy's head while he made a sweeping gesture with his hands.

Bunny nodded. "I think for once I understand Sandy. The huge ripple on Pennsylvania, Jack gone walkabout, now this? It can't be a coincidence; there's gotta be a connection."

"Let us follow police," suggested North. "Perhaps they find something useful." Luckily for them adults did not believe in Santa Clause and such, so the foursome would be invisible as they watched the investigation.

"Mickey-Mouse police work's gonna be worth zack if this really was Pitch," Bunny argued as the group walked toward a group of investigators with "PSBI" on their backs.

"Do you really think Pitch would do something like this?" Tooth asked. "He may be terrible to children, but to actually kidnap -"

"Shh," North silenced her, "Listen."

"You can see where the boy was crouched down here," said one investigator to the other two, pointing to two large rocks. Then he followed a trail of footprints, undoubtedly Jamie's, for several feet. "Then something made him get up and run. Then he fell," the instigator motioned to an indent in the ground, "The ground's dented from what could have been a struggle, then he was dragged backward and then," he shook his head. "And then nothing. No other footprints at the scene, no other imprints at all, no blood, no torn clothing, I mean it's literally like the kid ran from a nothing, got attacked and dragged away by a nothing, and then vanished into thin air. Twelve years with the C.A.R.D unit and I've never seen a crime scene than made less sense than this."

But to the four invisible eavesdroppers, it made perfect sense.

Bunny said what everyone was thinking. "Shadows don't leave footprints. Pitch nabbed Jamie."

North shook his head. "But why?"

Tooth felt Sandy gently tugging at her wing and looked down to see what the little golden man had to "say." He pointed to a large hole in the ground just past the C.A.R.D team, who apparently did not see the hole. They could not see it because it was no ordinary hole in the ground.

It was a door to Pitch's lair.

Bunny was expectedly the first to approach the hole. "I don't know, Big Guy. Let's go ask him."

"Should not all go at once," North spoke quickly before Bunny jumped. "At least one should stay here in case it is trap."

"In case it's a trap?" Bunny repeated. "London to a brick it's a trap, mate. We know he's got Jamie, he's probably got Jack, and now he wants us. Well he's gonna get us alright!" The angry Pooka drew his boomerangs and prepared to jump down the hole again.

"Bunny wait," Tooth protested. "North is right. We can't just go rushing after Pitch. Sandy and Jack made that mistake once before and we all remember how that ended."

Sandy nodded sadly.

"Well then what do you suggest we do? We can't just stand around up here while Jamie and Jack could be hurt. We have all the power and all the ready we're ever gonna have right here and right now!"

North hummed thoughtfully.

"Tooth," he finally said, "You stay here and watch over Jamie's friends. If we do not come back soon," he paused, "You know what to do."

Tooth nodded and watched Bunny, North, and Sandy descend into the lair of the Boogieman.

* * *

PSBI – Philadelphia State Bureau of Investigation

C.A.R.D – Child Abduction Rapid Deployment

That chapter was SO FUN! I didn't realize how much I missed writing true-to-life crime drama! Did you know that long, long ago, I wrote CSI and NCIS fanfiction? Like, a LOT of it! CSI was actually the first Fandom I was ever active in. And I still consider myself part of the Criminal Minds Fandom. So yeah, I'm huge into crime dramas, always have been.


	10. Chapter 10

It was entirely too quiet when the three Guardians dropped down into the Boogieman's lair. Even Bunny and North's landings were silent, though Sandy simply floated and thus did not actually land. The dead silence was offsetting to say the least. They had expected it to be darker, and that they would arrive to an almost complete absence of light. However, there was an abundance of dim, off-white almost gray light with no obvious source that cast tall, eerie shadows around too many turns and corners to count.

But the silence and the lighting did not hold the intruders attention for long.

North swore in Russian under his breath. Sandy nodded wide-eyed in agreement. Bunny, for once in his life, was utterly speechless.

Hundreds of cages. Like giant birdcages, they dangled from the ceiling from thick iron chains. None dared to think what they were meant to hold, only what they were possibly holding now.

"Perhaps Jack and Jamie are in one of those?" North mused.

"Lets get'em and get out," whispered Bunny. "This place is giving me the willies."

The group walked a short distance before they stopped in their tracks. A small, desperate voice came from above.

"Easter Bunny, Santa, Sandman, is that you guys?"

"Jamie," Bunny shouted. He looked up and saw the boy peering out of one of the suspended cages, knuckles whitening as he gripped the bars. "Thank Manny your alright." Bunny turned to Sandy ready to ask him to levitate up to the cage to free Jamie, but the wordless spirit was already halfway up.

"Thanks, Sandman," Jamie said with immense gratitude when Sandy opened the cage. Gently, Sandy took hold of the boy and slowly floated to the ground. Jamie smiled when he was finally back on solid ground.

"Jamie," North asked, "Where is Pitch holding Jack?"

"What do you mean?" Jamie asked, confused. "Pitch doesn't have Jack. He kidnapped me to get Jack to come here."

The Guardians looked questioningly at each other.

"He said his Nightmares have all run away," Jamie continued, "and he needs the Guardians help to get them back. I guess they're trying to take over the world without him and he's to weak to stop them by himself."

"If Nightmares are out of control," North thought aloud, "and Jack is still missing…"

"Then we've got a bigger problem on our hands than we though," Bunny finished.

"Wait," Jamie interrupted, "Jack's missing?"

"That is why we went to Burgess," North Explained. "We were looking for Jack when we saw police at pond. Children said you vanished. We found Pitch's hole in ground and followed it here."

"Could this get any worse!" Jamie shouted. "The Nightmares are out there destroying everything, my mom is probably worried sick thinking I've been snatched by some kind of child molester or something, and now Jack's missing!"

All four were startled when a smooth dark voice seemed to emit from the walls themselves.

"Don't tempt fate, dear boy. She doesn't like it. Trust me, I know her quite personally."

"Pitch," Bunny called out, looking around in every direction, ears twitching in the air. "Where's Jack Frost?"

"Did you not hear the child? I don't know where your baby Guardian is any more than you do. But I'll make you an offer." Pitch himself made an appearance then. Slowly, his tall, lean figure grew out of a nearby shadow.

"What kind of offer?" North questioned cautiously, punctuated by a question mark above a visibly angry Sandy.

"First off, I assure you I mean no harm to the boy. He was simply a tool to lead you to me."

"I though you wanted Jack," Jamie interrupted.

"Yes that was the original plan, but seeing as how he seems to have disappeared, the others will suffice. After all, one Guardian is quite the same as another for my purposes."

"And what are your purposes exactly," demanded Bunny.

"As big as your ears are, one would think you'd listen better. That would be the twice in as many minutes you've asked a question of me which Jamie has already answered. North," Pitch's eyes met North's and locked. "I'm sure you noticed the anomalies effecting the lights on the globe. As much as I hate to admit it, this is not my doing. After you lot stripped me of all but the last of my power, the Nightmares I created became stronger, not weaker as I'm sure you foolishly assumed. They did so by torturing me for moths on end. In the presence of innocent ears," Pitch glanced down at Jamie, "I won't detail the horrors of my experience at the hands of my creations."

"Don't you mean at the hoofs of your creations?" Jamie asked, cocking a weary half smile.

Pitch stared down at Jamie, deadpanned. "Aren't we funny. I'm sure the Guardian of Fun would be quite proud, which leads me," Pitch looked back up at the Guardians, "to my offer. I will help you find Jack. In return you will help me regain control of my Nightmares without destroying them all." He emphasized the last line. "I would say first the Nightmares then Jack, but in order to overpower the tremendous force they have become, it will take all six of us and Jack's abilities in particular have already proved effective against them."

"We Guardians take care of our own, thank you kindly," said Bunny to Pitch. "We don't need your help."

Pitch looked back down at Jamie with a toothless grin. "Jamie, I do believe we had a deal between ourselves, didn't we?"

Jamie nodded. "If no one controls the darkness, the darkness will control everything. If Pitch doesn't control the Nightmares, no one will. And if no one does, then those things with the lights are going to keep happening. I saw one on Pitch's globe. It's scary just looking at it."

"If Pitch hadn't made the Nightmares in the first place, then none of this would have even happened!" Bunny argued adamantly.

"Well he did, and is has," Jamie argued back. "Look, it's not like I've joined team Boogieman or anything, but Nightmares destroying the world isn't good for anyone. Not Pitch, not the Guardians, not the kids you guys swore an oath to protect."

"Must admit," North spoke after a long pause, "Boy has point."

"Excellent rebuttal, Jamie," Pitch congratulated. "Have you considered a career in law?"

Sandy looked at Jamie, nodding and giving a "thumbs up."

"Say we do help you get the Nightmares back," Bunny offered, "Who's to say you won't turn right around and attack us again?"

"By that logic, whose to say you won't abandon me as soon as I help you find Jack Frost?"

"We keep or word. You're a lying piece of-"

"Guys look!" yelled Jamie, pointing at Pitch's globe.

Australia was a blaze. Not just a few cities. Not just a segment. No. The entire  
mainland continent flashed.

"St. Petersburg was the site of the first anomaly." Pitch said, looking at North. "Recently Pennsylvania and now," he turned to Bunny, "The Land Down Under. They are already attacking the homes of the Guardians. It's like I said to Jamie before you arrived. If left to their own devices, my Nightmares will do more damage than I could ever dream of. They are more dangerous without me than I am with them."

When the massive ripple was over Bunny sighed heavily. "You're right. I hate it, but you're right."

"Nightmares must be stopped!" North agreed. "At all costs, even if this means temporary alliance with Pitch."

Sandy gave a sharp nod.

"We can't really have a proper vote without Jack and Tooth," Bunny said, "But Jack's missing, probably in trouble, and Tooth's holding down the fort up top."

North rubbed his beard. "Three out of five is still majority."

"So what's your plan to stop these things?" Bunny asked Pitch.

"First thing's first, Rabbit," Pitch answered.

Jamie finished the thought for Pitch. "We have to find Jack!"


	11. Chapter 11

"Before Jack," North said, resting a hand on Jamie's shoulder, "We take you home."

"But I want to help!" Jamie protested. "I can't stand knowing Jack's missing. What if one of those wild Nightmares has him? He could be in big trouble!"

"Your mum can't stand knowing you're missing either, Jamie," said Bunny.

"But I'm fine!"

"She doesn't know that. Like you said, she probably thinks you got nabbed by a kiddy bopper."

"Jamie, listen to me," Pitch said firmly, "Your family and friends fear for your life. Nightmares smell fear, and as strongly as Burgess reeks of it due to your disappearance it's sure to attract them. Do you want that?"

Jamie sighed. "No."

North nodded approvingly to Pitch. "Sandy, take Jamie to Tooth. Tell her to…" North leaned down and whispered something that no one else could hear to sandy. A serious expression crossed the Sandman's face and he nodded slowly. He motioned for Jamie to follow him, and the boy reluctantly did so.

"Promise me you'll tell me when you find Jack?"

"Jack's gonna want to make sure you're okay," Bunny replied. "He'll probably come see you himself."

"Really? Okay. I'm ready to go home Sandman."

Sandy took Jamie's hand and led him to the upward tunnel. He lifted the boy into his arms and floated up ward until he reached the surface. Jamie smiled with awe as he looked down and watched the ground slowly disappear from beneath him.

At the tunnel entrance, Tooth flitted impatiently. When she saw Sandy emerge carrying Jamie, she squealed with delight.

"Oh, Jamie, I'm so glad your safe!" she exclaimed and hugged him tightly.

Jamie laughed. "Nice to see you Tooth Fairy."

"Sandy, was Jack there too?"

Sandy shook his head

"Oh, no. Where could he be?"

Sandy shrugged and set Jamie up on his feet. He pointed to Jamie and a strange symbol materialized above him: a tooth with an X across it.

"North said so?"

Sandy nodded again.

Tooth sighed sadly. "Alright. I suppose it's the right thing to do."

"What's going on now?" Jamie questioned Tooth.

"It's okay. Sandy's going to help you rest. When you wake up, you'll be home."

"But I don't want to r-" Jamie yawned before he could finish his protest, because a sprinkling of golden dream sand was already falling on him. Tooth caught him when he fell over sound asleep.

Sandy pointed at himself and then down the hole.

"I'll come down as soon as Jamie's taken care of."

Sandy nodded and waved goodbye to Tooth before he went back down the tunnel to Pitch's lair.

As Tooth flew towards Jamie's house, she looked down at the boy in her arms regretfully, telling herself that sometimes a Guardian's duties were unpleasant but necessary to protect the children.

Especially for the Guardian of Memories.


	12. Chapter 12

As promised, Tooth joined Sandy and the others in the lair as soon as Jamie was safe. Bunny and North quickly filled her in on the events that she had missed, and she agreed with the decision that joining forces with Pitch Black to rescue Jack and defeat the Nightmares was the right thing to do.

"So where do we start?" Tooth asked the group. "He doesn't have a pattern or schedule; he could be anywhere."

Pitch hummed thoughtfully and stared at the globe. "If Jack was indeed abducted by a wild Nightmare as Jamie suggested, which is highly likely, then he should be in or around the sight of an anomaly."

Bunny thought for a moment. "Okay, that narrows it down a little. But how many of these things have there been?"

"My count is seventeen." North answered.

"Yes, I contend seventeen as well," Pitch confirmed.

"Jack would go someplace cold, right?" Tooth reasoned. "So he's either above forty five degrees latitude or below negative forty five degrees latitude."

"Above," Pitch pointed to the globe, "populated regions include the Northern continental United States, Alaska, all of Canada, half of Western Europe and almost all of Russia. Below is only the tip of South America, most of which is desert. Eight of the seventeen anomalies have occurred in those regions."

Bunny shook his head. "We need to narrow it down more. North, can you use those weather man doodads you've got at the pole to find out if any ripple sights got snow?"

"Brilliant idea, Bunny!" North congratulated Bunny and took out a snow globe from his inner coat pocket. I will go to pole and check gauges.

. . .

The instant North stepped out of his portal into the Globe Room at the Pole, he was practically bombarded with the grumbling grunts of yetis and the jingling of elf hats.

"Move, move," he ushered away the entourage, "I am in big hurry."

"Hagurgrwahgrrawgahr?" growled Phil, head of security.

"That is what we are trying to find out," North (who spoke fluent Yeti) answered.

The control panel rang and hummed as North pressed buttons and pulled leavers. After a few, the tiny screens across the dashboard told him what he needed to know.

"There he is," he said at first in a whisper, then jumped and shouted, much to the surprise of the elves just inches from his feet. "There he is!"

. . .

The four spirits remaining in the lair never took their eyes off the globe. They brainstormed loose theories about Jack and his possible whereabouts for a few minutes until one of North's portals appeared.

"That was fast," Pitch said, genuinely impressed and not hiding the fact.

North Jumped thru the portal. "Only one sight of ripple had snow! And NOT," he pointed to Tooth, "Above or below the forty fives, though was good theory."

"Out with it then," Pitch prompted impatiently, "Where was it?"

"Yesterday's ripple in South Africa."

Tooth gasped. "Snowfall uncharacteristic for the region in the same location as a ripple!"

"At almost exact time," North added.

"By dinkum, that's gotta be it!" agreed Bunny.

"It's decided then," declared Pitch. "We begin our search on the South African coast."

* * *

Sorry guys. This chapter was written in a very unmotivated moment. We'll check on Jamie next chapter.


	13. Chapter 13

Sorry this one is really short, and it doesn't even full explain the situation. All will be explained in time, though. I also wrote another RotG fic. It's a oneshot about Jack's childhood and right now it has no reviews, which makes me sad.

* * *

Jamie Bennett awoke with no earthly clue where he was or how he had gotten there. His eyes were still closed as he roused, but he could feel he was moving. He could hear low and urgent voices as well as...was that crying? His mother?

Groggily, he opened his eyes. "M...mom?"

His mother gasped and repressed a cry of relief. "JAMIE! Thank God you're awake. Are you all right, baby? Does anything hurt?"

Jamie blinked back in confusion. "What? No, no, I'm okay? What happened?" At least now that he was alert he could tell that he was in an ambulance. "Why do I have to go to the hospital?"

Mrs. Bennett was just as confused as her son. "I…I found you passed out on the porch swing in the back yard. I shook you, I screamed your name, Sophie tickled you and Cupcake slapped your face, but we couldn't wake you up."

His mother's explanation did nothing to ease his mind. In fact, he was even more confused. He closed his eyes and tried to remember. He had been hiding between two rocks, hide and seek…

Footsteps. He remembered footsteps. Then there was a man. A man in all black…he couldn't make out his face…he ran…

Then he woke up in an ambulance with his mother crying beside him.

Jamie opened his eyes. "I just…" how was he going to explain what happened to his mother, and undoubtedly the doctors and maybe even police, what had happened if he could not even remember. "I was playing hide and seek with my friend by the pond. Then I saw a man come out of the trees." He stopped when his mother cupped her hands over her mouth to suppress a sob. Fresh tears escaped her eyes. "I don't think I saw his face, but he was wearing all black. I was scared and I ran from him then…then I don't remember."

"Jamie," his mother's voice was just barely a chokes whisper, "Jamie, sweetie, you were kidnapped!"

"Kidnapped?" Jamie repeated. It was a scary thought, and he could not be sure if the fact that he seemed to have amnesia was a good or bad thing.

"You don't remember what he…what he did to you? Or how you got home?"

Jamie shook his head. "No clue. Maybe I'll remember something later. But nothing hurts or anything, I'm just…" Jamie paused for a yawn. "I'm just really tiered."

His mom took his hands in hers and gently squeezed. "Rest, sweetie."

Jamie hummed and closed his eyes. Although it was mid summer, he dreamed of snowball fights and sledding races; all manners of winter fun courtesy of Jack Frost.


	14. Chapter 14

The team of Guardians plus one split up to cover the most ground as quickly as possible. Bunny, being the only completely flightless member of the group, searched inland. Tooth and Sandy covered the western and eastern coasts respectively, and North oversaw the open ocean from his sleigh. Someone had to keep an eye on Pitch. After a heated four against one argument, the Boogieman reluctantly accepted that he had no choice but to tag along with North in the sleigh.

The silence between the two men in the air above the ocean was awkward at first, with neither attempting conversation. After an hour or so, it just grew heavily empty. North was beginning to grow impatient and anxious. Over an hour and no one had found anything. His concern for Jack was growing by the minute, so much so that he was able to ignore the presence of his sworn nemesis sitting a mere arms length away.

Pitch was bored and annoyed. Not only had he been forced into riding in this ridiculous oversized flying donkey cart, they were making no progress. He was patient to a fault; a skill one tends to learn when living a life such as his, but the matter at hand was immediately pressing. The Nightmares had been multiplying on their own for quite some time and if they were at that very moment feeding off of Jack's fear it meant that they were growing stronger still. Their task became more difficult with each passing second.

Pitch huffed in frustration, inviting a curious glance from North. The bearded Guardian said nothing, however. "If I'd known…" Pitch thought aloud. North did not reply.

If he had known it would turn out like this, would he have ever created those beasts? Yes, he reasoned, because it was their fault. Just over one year ago, four Guardians, one Guardian in training and a gaggle of booger infested toddlers left an army without a general, and now everyone was paying the price. All he wanted was to reclaim his thrown as the Nightmare King and to destroy the enemies who had dethroned him and left him to just barely exist in a lonely darkness.

"Was it really so much to ask?" Pitch asked wistfully, staring down at the ocean below. "To be believed in? For someone, anyone to see me or even know I exist?"

North sighed heavily but did not reply. He did, however, contemplate the question. Was it so much to ask? Was it really so harmful for children to believe in or even be afraid of the Boogieman?

Not so much, really. Fear is a painful but natural and even necessary part of life and for it to have a facilitator was just as much so. But where there is dark there must be light to shine down on it. Fear cannot be all that exists, which was what Pitch has tried to accomplish. There must be wonder, hope, sweet dreams, pleasant memories and fun to shape a healthy childhood. Pitch had tried to destroy these things in his quest to be believed in.

North hoped that, by working together to rescue Jack and stop the Nightmares, it would be possible for light and darkness to come to some sort of balance. Now was neither the time nor place to focus on such things, though.

"North!"

"Pitch, now is not time to discuss-"

"No, look down in the water."

North looked in the direction Pitch was pointing but saw nothing. "What is it?"

"Take us lower."

North let up on the reigns and flipped some switch on the dash that Pitch did not care to give a second glance and they descended until North was able to faintly see something floating in the steady waves. "What is that?" he wondered aloud

Luckily for Pitch they were under a cloud so he had shadow at his disposal. A weightless tendril of black whipped from Pitch's outstretched hand and spayed on toward the water's surface retrieving the item that had caught its wielder's intrigue. Once it was in the sleigh, North and Pitch observed it. I was a short wooden rod, but this was no piece of driftwood. There was a twisting, vine-like pattern to it and it was free of warp and rot. It did not take Pitch long to realize with a sinking feeling that he had held this stick in his hands once before.

North leaned towards Pitch for a closer look, and immediately felt sick once it donned on him. "Is that..?"

Pitch finished North's sentence in monotone. "The bottom half of Jack's staff."

* * *

One step closer, and now with a glimpse into the minds of North and Pitch.


	15. Chapter 15

It was beginning to grow dark by the time the team converged on the southernmost tip of South Africa.

Bunny was the first to notice the item in Pitch's hand. "That's…" He did not need to finish his sentence. Everyone could tell what it was.

"Oh no!" Tooth gasped when she saw what Pitch was holding. She fluttered quickly towards Pitch and took the broken staff piece and clutching it tightly.

Pitch did not object when Tooth took it and hugged it as if the stick was Jack himself. He could feel the fear she felt, that all the Guardians felt, for Jack's life. Though it should have made him feel empowered, it only made him feel sick to his stomach.

"It was floating almost one hundred miles off coast," North informed Sandy, Bunny and Tooth. The latter still had her back turned and was audibly stifling sobs.

"Don't cry now, Toothy," Bunny said to comfort her. "There's hope yet."

"W-what if…what if he's hurt? He could even be…he can't fly without his staff! He could be floating at sea, just stranded out there. Or not floating! What if he can't swim! He died by drowning, he could be at the bottom of the ocean!"

"Whoa there. Don't talk yourself into believing the worst. Now we know for sure he's out there and we'll find him."

"Bunny is right. Only question now is how to proceed."

Tooth looked up with tear filled eyes at the darkening sky. "It's getting late."

Pitch sighed. "Taking Jamie, all this traveling, manipulating very sparse shadows as a retrieval mechanism; it's all been an enormous expenditure of what precious little energy I have and quite frankly I'm exhausted."

"No time for resting," North insisted. "Jack is defiantly in trouble and he must be found!"

As North continued an oration about the importance of Jack to their mission, a thought occurred to Pitch, realization so brilliant that he would not have been surprised with himself if he would have shouted, jumped, and slapped his knee. "Exhausted!" he exclaimed. "That's it!"

"Oh, rack off ya old-"

"Shut up, Rabbit. Listen to me. Imagine it's Easter afternoon and you've just spent all morning hopping all over the world hiding your ridiculous technicolor eggs. I imagine it's an exhausting process for you. So after you've finished basking in your own glory, what do you do?"

"Watch it! I don't bask in glory! When I get back to my warren after Easter I go straight…" Bunny paused, now understanding the point Pitch was trying to make. "I go straight to bed."

"Precisely. Tooth said it herself, Jack produced snowfall uncharacteristic for the region. Would he not be tiered afterwards?"

"We didn't find him Burgess," Tooth reasoned, now turning to face the group and join the conversation. "He didn't go home to sleep. He couldn't have even if he wanted to without his staff."

"You also said he would go someplace cold. What's the closest, most comfortable place for a snow spirit to rest and refresh himself?"

A light bulb literally appeared over Sandy's head and he pointed south.

"Antarctica?" Tooth questioned, puzzled.

"This is how I believe it happened. Agree with me or not. Jack came here intent on disturbing the delicate weather patterns of a semi-desert region. A heard of Nightmares also came here intent on causing mayhem. He was en rout to Antarctica to take a nap after making all the little children squeal in delight when he and the Nightmares intercepted each other unintentionally. The Nightmares felt threatened by the presence of a Guardian and attacked."

"Or Jack felt cornered and struck out in self defense," Tooth thought, clutching the broken piece of the staff tighter.

"Either way, Pitch makes good theory," North agreed. "We should move search to Antarctica. Bunny," he turned to the Guardian of Hope. "You will not fair well in Antarctic winter. Go back to North Pole and-"

"Oh no," Bunny argued, "I'm not abandoning Jack right now. I'll be fine, mate."

Pitch smirked. "No serving him right, then?"

Bunny leapt toward the Boogieman and shook one balled up paw in his smug looking face. The other paw drew a boomerang. "He wouldn't have done that if you wouldn't have tricked him you twisted little-"

"PITCH! BUNNY!" North Bellowed, "This is not time or place and you will not help Jack by fighting each other! Past is in past and what matters now is finding Jack and stopping ripples."

Sandy soundlessly applauded North.

"Bunny, North is right about you going back to the pole," Tooth said, bringing the conversation back on topic. "It's summer and your coat is too thin right now to block out such bitter cold."

"And it's warmer in the heart of the Arctic?"

North nodded. "In globe room, yes. Which is where I need you. Tell Yeti's what is going on. If they see Pitch without knowing situation, they will not hesitate to attack and alliance will be ruined."

Bunny shrugged in defeat. "Fine, I'll go to the pole. But if you're not there with Jack soon, I'm coming after ya with a whole posse of Yetis, got it?"

North laughed heartily at the threat and Bunny thumped his foot on the ground, opening up a tunnel. He jumped down the hole waving goodbye and the hole closed behind him, leaving a single flawless daffodil in its wake.

"Everyone to sleigh!" North called to the remainder of the team, and the motley crew made its way into what Pitch hat not so affectionately dubbed the "oversized flying donkey cart" and set their cores for Antarctica.

Little did the rescue party know that awaiting them was a heard of Nightmares who, for over two whole days, had grown immensely powerful by feeding off the terror of the Guardian of Fun.

* * *

The Next chapter will be the best one yet because we're gonna get some ACTON! Epic Nightmare battle FTW!


	16. Chapter 16

Were it not for the cascading gradient of blue, green, and yellow of _Aurora Australis_, it would have been completely dark as the sleigh carrying the party of four crossed over the first reaches of the coast of Antarctica. The glow the Southern Lights cast down on the earth below was spectacular, but given their dire situation, it also gave off an ominous aura. The remnants of storm clouds lingered in the distance, but the air was calm and quiet.

Perhaps too quiet.

North laid his hands across his belly and batted gently. "Something bad is defiantly here."

Pitch, who sat in the front seat next to North, hummed thoughtfully. "Yes, I feel it too. Everyone, be ready to-"

Suddenly the team of reindeer screeched, reared, and bucked, causing the sleigh and everyone in it to jerk.

"What in the…" North began to swear before he saw what spooked his team. A wild Nightmare reared and whinnied in front of them. Its eyes had turned from the gold of the sun to red like raging fire and it was at least twice as large as any of them remembered Nightmares (who were supposed to be the size of a normal horse) to be.

"Well, Pitch," Tooth said from the back seat, "You were right about them growing!"

Sandy rose up into the air and drew a whip. He lashed his weapon of sand at the beast, but it dodged the attack and took off towards the ground. The sleigh plummeted after it in pursuit until they landed on the permafrost terrain with a screech.

"Damned things are faster, too!" exclaimed Pitch, sounding just as impressed as he was desperate.

The instant the four left the sleigh, they found themselves surrounded by a total of five Nightmares, all oversized and red eyed as the first had been. North drew his swords, Sandy conjured his whips, and Pitch mustered what shadows he could. Tooth was the only Guardian who was totally unarmed. Her only weapon would be using her lightning speed to blast straight thru them. All at once the five creatures like demons drawn up from Hell attacked, charging with full force. The deafening screech they emitted was enough to make the spirits flinch, and North narrowly dodged a pair of hooves that would have trampled down on him.

There really were only five Nightmares, but there might as well have been dozens the way they moved. They were faster than the eye could follow and, essentially being made of sand, they could change their shape making it look as if they could disappear before materializing in another spot. They eventually managed to separate and isolate each of the Guardians and Pitch.

Tooth flew up high in the air to gain the needed momentum. She then dive-bombed straight down at the speed of sound and blasted into a Nightmare that Pitch was just barely defending himself against. The beastly horse disintegrated on impact. Tooth was dizzy from her dive and did not notice the Nightmare charging up behind her until it was just a foot or so away. She whipped around in shock just as a ball of solid shadow exploded against its head and it fell apart into ash-like dust.

At the same time some ways away, Sandy was battling a Nightmare one-on-one. The blasted thing dodged strike after strike until finally one lash of Sandy's whip barely caught it on the left flank. It did not destroy it, but it did stop the creature long enough for Sandy to deliver two more well placed lashes against it's back. The Nightmare morphed from deadly black into a golden Dream and harmlessly galloped away.

Two so-called mindless beasts seamed to have developed a strategy against North. They would charge him from two sides at once and just narrowly miss each swipe of the Guardian of Wonder's two enormous swords.

By this time, the eight unattended reindeer had managed to break free of their harnesses. As soon as they were all untied, they immediately ran to the aid of their master. Dasher and Comet, the two leads of the team, charged in on either side of one Nightmare and destroyed it with one swipe of their mighty antlers. The other six surrounded the last remaining enemy and closed in slowly but did not attack while awaiting orders from North.

"Don't let them attack!" Pitch shouted, running towards the scene just as North was about to order the reindeer to do just that.

Dancer and Blitzen parted just enough for him to enter the circle. Pitch approached slowly and purposefully towards the Nightmare, who snorted angrily and stamped its enormous hooves on the ground. Pitch's posture was straight and ridged and his eyes were stern and narrowed. The Nightmare stared him down defiantly with its ears pined firmly back, looking ready to attack as Pitch strode steadily towards it, showing no fear.

"What on earth is he doing?" Tooth whispered to North.

"Taking control," he answered simply.

The three Guardians watched intently.

Pitch stopped only a yard away from the evil black creature. For a tense few minutes it was a battle of wills in the form of a silent staring contest between Pitch and the Nightmare before, at long last, The Nightmare stopped stamping and lowered its head in surrender.

"I am the Nightmare King," Pitch declared loud enough for all to hear. "You belong to me."

He stroked the Nightmares main, eliciting a neigh of contentment. Using his shadows to raise himself slightly, and he mounted the animals back. Instantly the animal's eyes turned from red back to their natural gold, and Pitch's eyes brightened in color as well. He was gaining his power back.

"How many more herds are there, I know you lot weren't the only one."

The Nightmare snorted an answer that only Pitch could understand.

A small gasp escaped Pitch.

"What did it say?" North asked eagerly and the three Guardians came closer.

"Five more herds of six each," he answered darkly. "There were originally six in this heard, but Jack killed one of them."

"Where's Jack!" Tooth demanded, bravely bringing her face only an inch away from Pitch's new mount, who snorted smoke in her face, making her cough.

"I wouldn't advise you to-"

Pitch was interrupted by a sound in the distance: the whinny of another horse, but a lighter tone than any of Pitch's Nightmares. The group followed the sound and found a golden Dream horse, the one that Sandy had transformed, standing over a pronounced lump in the ground.

'Is…i-is that…" Tooth stammered and fluttered quickly over to the lump and knelt beside it. She dug her tiny hands into the snow to revile what was underneath.

Tooth's scream could not be distinguished between horror and relief, but it made the others flinch.

"JACK!"


	17. Chapter 17

North dropped to his knees on the opposite side of the lump that was now confirmed to be Jack and helped Tooth dig away the snow piled on top of him. He was still unconscious when Tooth propped him up in her lap. She brushed the last of the powdery snow from his ace to reveal deep purple bruises marring his pale skin. One eye was swollen so terribly that Tooth doubted Jack would be able to open it any time soon.

"We must take him to pole quickly," North urged and stood up. "Everyone to…" he was about to say "sleigh" when he noticed that the vehicle was some ways away without reindeer to pull it. All eight of them were spread out across the land digging and sniffing at the ground in search of something to graze on. Battles tended to work up an appetite.

Pitch, still atop his own mount, recognized the predicament. "North, you stay here and round up your deer. I'll take Jack to the Pole. He needs to be tended to right away."

"Sandy," North asked the Guardian of Dreams, who was hovering over Tooth, "Stay and help me gather reindeer."

Sandy nodded slowly, but the worry etched onto his face did not leave, and he found it difficult to look away from Jack to follow North.

"I'll go with you, Pitch." Tooth said quickly, rising up with some difficulty holding Jack.

"Let me carry him," Pitch offered. "You'll strain your wings."

"I'm fine," she insisted, looking at Pitch atop the Nightmare skeptically. "He's not much heavier than Jamie was."

Pitch shook his head impatiently. "You're weak from the fight; I'm not. Give him to me." The last sentence came across more sternly than he had meant, but he was not sorry for it. It was irritating, this hummingbird's behavior. Not ten minutes ago they fought side by side against a common threat, literally saved each other's lives, and now she did not trust him. What was it going to take to convince these "people?"

Tooth looked worriedly at Jack. Would he be safe if she handed him to Pitch? With enough of his power restored, he could simply bolt away with Jack before any of them could react. He COULD. But WOULD he? How Pitch treated Jack at the young Guardian's weakest time would be the telling factor in weather he would or would not attack them in the end as all of the Guardians silently (or not-so-silently in the case of Bunny) feared.

Tooth nodded and did the only thing she could: she gently laid Jack in Pitch's outstretched arms.

. . . . . . . . . .

Back at the Pole, Bunny had spent this entire time pacing around the globe room and arguing with Yetis. There had been no ripples sense the last one in Australia the they hat all watched on Pitch's globe, something that Bunny reasoned was either really good or really bad.

"AHRGAHRRAAHRG!" Phil growled and pointed to the center of the room where a swirling porthole appeared. Bunny and all of the Yetis and elves stared, stunned.

Out stepped an enormous Nightmare with glowing eyes. The Yetis were about to attack before they noticed Pitch Black riding on its back carrying an unconscious, bruised and limp Jack Frost. Tooth followed closely behind them with what looked like a broken piece of Jacks staff in her hand. The porthole closed behind her.

"What in bloody hell, Tooth!" Bunny cursed and crossed the distance between the globe and them in a single bound. "Where are North and Sandy?"

"The deer broke lose. They're gathering them back now." Pitch answered.

"Is your name Tooth? No. I wasn't talking to you, ya whacker! Gimme tha kid."

"I'm beginning to lose my patience with you, Rabbit!" Pitch practically dropped Jack in Bunny's arms. "I've done nothing but try to be civil with you and all I get from you is-"

The volume of Pitch and Bunny's exchange was growing along with the malice. "YOU being Civil is like North turning down cookies. It's not possible."

"If I wasn't-"

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!"

Both snapped their heads to the side and saw Tooth with her teeth and fists clenched, angrier than either had ever seen her.

"Listen to yourselves. We're facing a common enemy and all either of you can do is go at each other's throats like a couple of dogs! Jack is hurt and all you're doing," she pointed the broken staff piece at Bunny accusingly "is antagonizing Pitch and putting even more strain on an already delicate ceasefire agreement."

Bunny opened his mouth to protest, but Tooth cut him off. "Don't argue with me, Aster Bunnymund or so help me Manny I'll whack you over your thick head with this," she threatened, waving the stick. "Now take Jack to the spare bedroom, check him for broken bones and take. Care. Of. Him!"

Bunny stared wide-eyed at Tooth not quite sure what had just happened. He tried to ignore the smug look on Pitch's pointy old mug. When he finally came to his senses he pouted indignantly and muttered under his breath, "Well when ya put it that way…"

"And as for you," Tooth now pointed the stick at Pitch, whose smug grin instantly turned to a stunned stare. "You have also said things to purposefully antagonize Bunny, and don't you dare try to deny it. I don't want you alone with Bunny at any time, or anywhere near Jack until we've had a chance to explain the situation to him. I'm not saying I don't trust you, but Jack probably thinks you sent the Nightmares to attack him, and the last thing we need is him feeling threatened. Is that understood?" When Pitch did not answer immediately, Tooth over-articulately repeated herself. "Is. That. Under. Stood?"

Pitch was genuinely impressed by the hummingbirds resolve. He never knew she had it in her to be so adamant. He cocked a small half smile. "Yes ma'am."

"Good," she closed the conversation pertly and smoothed her feathers with her empty hand. "Feel free to help yourself to cookies while I go check on Bunny and Jack."

As Tooth fluttered away, it occurred to Pitch that the entire scolding episode had had an audience. All around were the surprised faces of dozens of elves and Yetis.

"What are you lot looking at? Leave me alone."

Pitch was beginning to cramp from riding, so he dismounted the Nightmare and leaned against a workbench facing the globe. He might as well keep an eye open for anomalies sense he understandably was not allowed near Jack or Bunny. Eventually the company in the room got used to his silent presence and went about their business, most of them leaving the globe room.

Soon he was left only with Phil and two elves fighting over the last sugar cookie. Pitch watched them in amusement, but his mind kept wandering. Was Jack going to be alright? Would any part of him, body or mind, be permanently damaged by his torture? Why was he so worried anyway? Perhaps it was because he needed Jack's powers in order for the team to be successful in recapturing the Nightmares. Or maybe, just maybe, he actually cared what happened to the little snow spirit.

And that thought was more frightening than a battalion of red-eyed Nightmares.


	18. Chapter 18

Bunny carried Jack up a short flight of stairs following a Yeti to a room they had prepared for when Jack was finally found. Surprisingly to Bunny, Jack was even lighter than he looked. He was not even winded by the time he reached the designated room.

It was a small, sparsely furnished spare room with only a bed, a nightstand, a cushioned chair, and a fireplace burning dimly keeping the room just above freezing to be comfortable for Jack and bearable for everyone else. A soft natural light lightly tinted blue, green, and red shone through the enormous stained glass bay windows that made up the entire outer wall.

"This place looks nice and cozy," Bunny said to Jack as if the boy in his arms could here him. Jack had not stirred or roused sense he had taken him from Pitch.

Pitch. Bunny shook his head at the thought of him as he removed Jacks drenched hoodie and laid it across the fireplace mantel to dry. He stared into the dim embers and sighed.

"I know why it has to be like this," he said quietly, possibly to Jack or possibly to himself; he was not quite sure, "this so-called truce with Pitch. That doesn't mean I have to like it. I mean, he made this mess and now it's my duty as a Guardian to clean it up and give it back to him? Mickey Mouse, I tell ya, but what's a bloke to…" His sentence tapered off when he turned around again and for the first time really noticed the state Jack was in.

Bruises. So many enormous purple splotches across Jack's chest that Bunny could not tell where one ended and another began. They extended up his shoulders and a few trailed down his arms. His right wrist was also swollen and discolored. Bunny sat down on the bed next to Jack. If he would have known any better Bunny would have thought that the fur around his eyes was getting wet, but that would have meant that he was crying. He certainly knew better than…

No, he was crying.

He sniffled just before he heard a soft knock at the door that was cracked open an inch or so.

"If it's not Pitch, come in," he answered.

The door slowly and silently opened.

"Oh, hey Tooth."

"How is he?" the fairy asked, voice low as she fluttered quietly in to the room. She was still carrying Jack's broken staff piece.

"Looks about like he got trampled by a heard of horses. Some ribs are probably broken. That's defiantly broken," Bunny motioned to Jack's right wrist. It was purple and swollen.

Bunny looked up at Tooth. "I'm sorry for the way I acted back there."

"I understand. It's hard right now. We're all under a lot of stress and with Pitch being involved it makes is so much more complicated." Tooth sighed and her body slumped forward. She hated to admit it to herself but Pitch had been right before. She was weak from the fight, exhausted as a matter of fact.

"I don't trust Pitch," Bunny said, shaking his head. "He's tricked Jack once before, what reason do I have to think he's not trying to trick us now, that we're not playing into another of his traps? He started this in the first place. He stole Sandy's powers and practically cannibalized him with them, he stole your fairies and locked them up in those nasty cages, crushed my eggs and ruined Easter, tried to turn Jack against us…do I need to talk about what he did centuries ago during the war?"

"No!" Tooth answered quickly. "Bunny, I know you don't trust him. You don't want to have anything to do with him. Out of all five of us you hate him the most, and with good reason. You're right; he could turn around and attack us again as soon as his power is restored. But I don't think he will. Pitch could have taken Jack ten minutes ago in Antarctica and none of us could have done anything about it and he knew it. But he didn't. He brought him here. He's kept his end of the bargain so far and I believe he'll continue to do so just as long as we do the same."

Bunny was thoughtfully silent for a moment. "For the Guardian of Memories, you sure do forget easily."

"For the Guardian of Hope, you sure are being a pessimist about all of this."

For the first time sense they found him, Jack showed signs f life. He groaned painfully and his face twisted into a grimace.

Before bunny and Tooth could react to him, a faint golden light appeared in the doorway.

"Oh Sandy, you're back," Tooth smiled with relief.

Sandy nodded and floated to the bed and hovered over Jack. His brow creased in worry. Jack's breathing was rough and uneven and it was clear he was having a nightmare. Sandy sprinkled a dash of his dream sand onto Jack's head, and instantly he relaxed again.

"Thanks Sandy," Bunny said with a sad smile.

Quick, heavy footsteps came down the hallway and the three conscious guardians stood on alert. A pure white Yeti slammed the door open and grunted something unintelligible but very urgent sounding. It was clear something bad was happening again. None of them wanted to leave Jack's side, but there were still herds of Nightmares on the loose and thus still a job to be done. Reluctantly they all followed the Yeti to the globe room, leaving Jack to sleep, hopefully peacefully now.


	19. Chapter 19

Because this chapter is so short, I would like to add a long-ish authors note to the top. Currently this story is my most reviewed with 52, second most followed with 37 (behind Part one of What vs What series with 40) third most viewed with 4,885 (behind parts one and two respectively of the What vs. What series with 14,979 an 5,218) and seventh most faved with 18 (behind Parts one and two of What vs. What, one other CM oneshot and three HTTYD oneshots, The Violent Wave being number one at a staggering 47). I'm hoping to get this story to the top of all the lists!

* * *

_"Emma!" Jack calls out for perhaps the thousandth time._

_"Jack, help me!" Pleads the little girl, still thrashing desperately to keep herself afloat in the treacherous water. _

_"I'm coming! Don't worry!"_

_"Jack, I'm scared!"_

_"I know, but you're going to be okay."_

_Seemingly out of nowhere, a sudden burst of strength comes over Jack, and for the first time sense before he can remember, he is actually able to swim closer to the panicked child. He forces himself closer and closer to her until finally, finally, he reaches her. He wraps an arm around her waist to support her just milliseconds before she plunges beneath a particularly large wave._

_"Hang on to me," he instructs her. "Don't let go, just keep kicking your legs."_

_Emma does just this, and clinging to each other the two swim onward and onward. _

_As they swim, the waves slowly but surely begin to calm. The more the waves calm, the faster they swim, and the farther they swim, the calmer the waves become until it slows to a gentle ripple. The sky, which had been dark with thundering storm clouds, begins to turn blue and the clouds role back until there is no sign at all of the raging swell. The sun shows itself for the first time, and it beams down a light on a coastline ahead of Jack and Emma._

_"I see land!" Jack tells the girl in his arms. "Keep kicking, we're almost there."_

_Soon the two reach the coast and come to rest on a warm sunny beach with soft sand as white as snow. They crawl out of the water onto the beach and collapse, exhausted from their fight. After catching his breath, Jack roles over to face Emma, who is till panting but smiling weakly. _

_"See? I told you you'd be okay, didn't I?"_

_Emma laughs. "I always believed in you, Jack." She scoots closer to him and hugs him tightly around the neck. "I love you, Jack. You're the best brother in the world."_

_Jack smiles and hugs her back. "I love you too, Emma."_


End file.
